NA28 Parsings Guide

The first field is always part of speech. Which part of speech it is will determine what the following fields are.

Here are the part of speech codes:

A Adjective

C Conjunction

D Adverb

I Interjection

M Determiner

O Pronoun

P Preposition

Q Particle

S Crasis

V Verb

Parts of Speech

Adjectives (A) are words that modify nouns. The parsing codes for them indicate case, gender, number, and, in some cases, degree. Note that degree is only used if an adjective is comparative or superlative. If it is left out, then it is assumed to be the positive.

Pattern:

A + [case] + [gender] + [number] (+ [degree])

Examples:

AAMP Adjective, Accusative, Masculine, Plural

AAMPM Adjective, Accusative, Masculine, Plural, Comparative

Conjunctions (C) are words that join two clauses. The parsing code for a conjunction is simply C, and does not use any other fields.

Pattern:

C

Example:

C Conjunction

Adverbs (D) are a broad category of words that consists of words used to modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. The parsing code for an adverb can indicate degree, but only if it is comparative or superlative. If it is left out, then the adjective is assumed to be positive in form.

Pattern:

D (+ [degree])

Examples:

D Adverb

DM Adverb, Comparative

Interjections (I) are words used to make an exclamation. The parsing code for an interjection is simply I and does not use any other fields.

Pattern:

I

Example:

I Interjection

Determiners (M) are the various forms of the article, which generally corresponds to the English definite article “the”. This word was originally a demonstrative pronoun, but has the morphological forms of a positive adjective (it is sometimes even referred to as the articleadjective). Because of this, it takes the same fields as an adjective, with the exception of degree. These are case, gender, and number.

Pattern:

M + [case] + [gender] + [number]

Example:

MAMS Determiner, Accusative, Masculine, Singular

Nouns are words used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea. The parsing codes for nouns require fields for case, gender, and number.

Pattern:

N + [case] + [gender] + [number]

Example:

NDMP Noun, Dative, Masculine, Plural

Pronouns (O) are word that take the place of a noun. Due to their connection to nouns, they use the same fields for case, gender, and number. Personal pronouns also add a field for person.

Pattern:

O + [case] + [gender] + [number] (+ [person])

Examples:

OAFP Pronoun, Accusative, Feminine, Plural

OAFP1 Pronoun, Accusative, Feminine, Plural, 1st Person

Prepositions (P) are words that describe a spatial, temporal, or causal relationship. They have an object that is in one of the three oblique cases (genitive, dative, or accusative), determined by the type of relationship described. Because of this, the parsing code for a preposition also includes a field for case.

Pattern:

P + [case]

Example:

PG Preposition Governing the Genitive

Particles (Q) are uninflected words that are used to indicate grammatical relationships, but which do not have a meaning independent of that function. Since they are uninflected, particles do not have any additional fields in their parsing codes.

Pattern:

Q

Example:

Q Particle

Crasis (S) is the contraction of two words into a single word. The parsing code for these words can be just the letter S, or it can include case, gender, and number in cases where the words would normally have these features.

Pattern:

S (+ [case] + [gender] + [number])

Examples:

S Crasis

SNNS Crasis, Nominative, Neuter, Singular

Verbs (V) are words that express and action or a state of being. They can be divided into two broad morphological categories: finite and non-finite verbs.

Finite verbs are verb forms that are bound to a grammatical subject and their parsing codes have fields for tense, voice, mood, person, and number.

Pattern:

V + [tense] + [voice] + [mood] + [person] + [number]

Example:

VPPI3P Verb, Present, Passive, Indicative, 3rd Person, Plural

Non-finite verbs are verb forms that do not have a grammatical subject. They can be further divided into infinitives and participles.

Infinitives (N) are a nominal form of a verb (i.e. a verb form that functions as a noun). Since they do not have a grammatical subject, they do not have person or number, and infinitive is considered their mood. As a result, their parsing codes have fields for tense, voice, and mood.

Pattern:

V + [tense] + [voice] + N {infinitive}

Example:

VPPN Verb, Present, Passive, Infinitive

Participles (P) are an adjectival form of a verb (i.e. a verb form that functions as an adjective). Their parsing codes have the same fields as infinitives do (except with participles as the mood), plus the additional fields that an adjective would have. This means that they have fields for tense, voice, mood, case, gender, and number.

Pattern:

V + [tense] + [voice] + P {participle} + [case] + [gender] + [number]

Example:

VPPPGNP Verb, Present, Passive, Participle, Genitive, Neuter, Plural

Grammatical Features

Cases are grammatical categories that indicate the grammatical function of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and participles in a sentence.

These are the codes for the different cases:

A Accusative

D Dative

G Genitive

N Nominative

V Vocative

Degree is a feature of some adjectives and adverbs that is used to make comparisons. No code indicates a positive degree, which means that no comparison is being made.

These are the codes for the different degrees of comparison

{no code} Positive

M Comparative

S Superlative

Gender refers to grammatical classes of nouns, adjectives, determiners, pronouns, and participles. Relationships between words with the same referent can be indicated through agreement of gender (in addition to other features).

Here are the codes for the grammatical genders:

-﷒ (No Gender)

F Feminine

M Masculine

N Neuter

Mood is a feature of verbs that is used to express what the speaker is trying to do with a particular verb (i.e. to make a statement, give a command, etc.)

Here are the codes for the moods

I Indicative

M Imperative

N Infinitive

O Optative

P Participle

S Subjunctive

Number is a feature of adjectives, determiners, nouns, pronouns, and verbs to indicate how many of something are being referred to. Relationships between words with the same referent can be indicated through agreement of number (in addition to other features).

Here are the codes for number:

P Plural

S Singular

Person is a feature of verbs that indicates the relationship of the subject of the verb to the participants in the conversation.

Here are the codes for person:

1 First Person

2 Second Person

3 Third Person

Tense is a feature of verbs that is used to indicate when an action takes place. In the case of Greek, it also indicates the quality of an action (e.g. simple, on-going, etc.)

Here are the codes for tense:

A Aorist

F Future

I Imperfect

L Pluperfect

P Present

R Perfect

Voice is a feature of verbs that indicates whether the subject of the verb is the doer or the target of the action expressed by the verb.